State academies are edging out their private peers with good results in
affordable areas

One of the most powerful engines driving the property market is the desire to find a good school close to a house you can afford. It is among the most agonising decisions a family makes, and new research shows that parents are prepared to pay a premium of almost 22 per cent to buy close to some of the best state secondary schools in the country.

“There has been a 50 per cent increase in requests for state schools since the recession began in 2007,” says Janette Wallis of The Good Schools Guide, which has produced the research with Savills Research. “This has partly been driven by concern about university entrance because universities are being encouraged to look more carefully at state school applicants. Our aim is to help parents find a school that they would move house to be near.”

The guide drew up a list of 35 of the most desired or recommended schools in London and the country, all strong academic performers. Savills then matched these with postcode house-price data, which they compared with the surrounding county or local authority to work out the premium. The surprise finding is that there are new areas where state secondary schools are performing outstandingly well but where house prices have not yet been inflated by the arrival of middle-class buyers with bigger budgets.

“This is an interesting phenomenon which we have noticed recently, caused partly by an increased emphasis on creating good academies in areas which were struggling,” says Janette. “We now have parents considering schools in poorer neighbourhoods where the results are good, which they would never have done before.”

Such is the demand that The Good Schools Guide runs a service dedicated to state schools, as well as its better-known independent schools advice service, and a global service for parents abroad. Charges vary from £75 for an hour’s discussion to £2,500 for the global premier service. “There wasn’t a market for state schools a few years ago, but there also wasn’t one at the top end for the global rich coming to London,” says Janette.

This is stark evidence of how much the capital has become a global magnet able to attract international money with its magic combination of valuable property and good schools.

“Private schools tend to be set up in wealthy zones, so buyers are prepared to pay a premium to live close to them and pay the fees,” says Sophie Chick of Savills Research, who worked on the house-price data. “But state schools can emerge as high performers anywhere, regardless of whether housing stock is high or low value. And this shows that in spite of the rising market you can still be close to a good school without having to buy a very expensive house.”

Serena Fremantle was appalled at how difficult it was to find her way round the education system in Kent for her two children India, 12, and Ludo, 10. The grammars could be accessed only by taking the 11-plus and, as the primaries where she lived in East Sussex didn’t prepare children for that, it meant finding a tutor. As a single mother the idea of selling and buying a new house in a catchment area also seemed daunting.

So she opted to rent a home in Sissinghurst, close enough to the grammar schools in Maidstone yet within the catchment area of Cranbrook community school. India is now at Maidstone Grammar but has a bus journey of more than an hour each morning, while Ludo is about to take the 11-plus. But as pressure mounts on the grammars, she says the catchments get smaller.

“There is so little information available on what to do,” says Serena, a garden designer. “A good school is important enough to move house for. I can’t paint the walls red and call it my own, but by renting I can be in the right place yet remain flexible.”

OUTSIDE LONDON

Outside London the average uplift in house prices close to the best state schools is higher than in London, at 23 per cent.

At the top end is Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in Cheshire, an area loved by footballers and millionaires, where the premium is just over 223 per cent. “This is a chicken-and-egg situation where the area is popular with families already, and the premium is quite staggering because it is in Greater Manchester where housing is diverse and some areas have an average house price of £80,000 to £90,000,” Chick says.

But there are plenty of areas where property prices are lower and the schools are very good, such as Woking and Guildford in Surrey, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Slough and Reading in Berkshire, Newport in Shropshire, and Ripon in Yorkshire. Best value is Watford in Hertfordshire, where Watford Grammar School for Girls is in a catchment where house prices are more than 36 per cent below the average for the county.

Good for Watford Grammar School for Boys: A four-bedroom semi-detached in Cassiobury Park, £650,000, Taylors (01923 369093).

13 Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts (prices higher by 22.8%; small number of places for those with aptitude in modern foreign languages and music, priority to children from feeder schools, M).

14 Watford Grammar School for Girls, Watford, Herts (prices lower by 36.6%; partially selective, academic ability in merit order, musical aptitude, admission area as close to school as possible, G).

In London the average premium paid to be close to a good state school is 20.2 per cent, but the level of premium is extraordinarily varied.

At the top end is The Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb, with a premium of 146 per cent. But the area, conceived as an egalitarian model village by Dame Henrietta Barnett in 1907, is so sought-after that school and urban idyll work together to push prices up.

“The school has a reputation which radiates far beyond its geographical location,” says Trevor Abrahmsohn, of Glentree Estates. “Of all the many attractions of being there, one of the strongest is the idea of living within walking distance of the school, having a kind of country life in London. But it is so competitive that buyers need to know they may not get their children into the school.”

At the other end of the scale is Graveney, where Wandsworth blends into Streatham and house prices are nearly 41 per cent below the average in the rest of Wandsworth. Savills believes this is because City money hasn’t moved into the area yet. But Noel Lawrence of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward says prices are already jumping. “We sold a house in Penwortham Road near the school at £550,000 in August 2011 and have just revalued it at £925,000.”

LONDON SCHOOLS

Good for The Henrietta Barnett, Hampstead: four-bedroom cottage-style house in Willifield Way at £1.395m, Glentree Estates (020 8458 7311).